Motor Mouth Camp 2013

ILC volunteers help give kids in need a voice

Seven Independent Living Centre employees recently volunteered their time and expertise to help give kids in need a voice at the third annual Variety Motor Mouth Camp.

Communicating when you can’t speak can be a big challenge, but it became a little easier for the group of 15 children who attended the Variety Motor Mouth Camp earlier this month.

The five-day camp at Point Walter provided intense communication therapy for young people who use augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) aids and voice output devices. Parents, carers and siblings were also provided with the invaluable education and support.

Aided by a team of volunteer speech pathologists and mentors, school-aged children from as far as Dampier came together to learn or fine-tune their skills using aids to communicate. The camp also gave families the chance to learn about various aids and share experiences with others facing the same communication challenges.

ILC Tech Team Leader Kelly Moore, who has coordinated all three Variety Motor Mouth camps held in WA, said volunteering at the camp is a rewarding experience.

“ILC Tech supports people with complex communication needs, their families, educators and health professionals to stay up to date in terms of technologies and best practice in the AAC area.

“The Variety Motor Mouth Camp allows our team to extend this support, and work with children and their families to maximise communication in the super-fun camp setting.

“Working intensely with the families and seeing the hope and change that comes out of the camp is very rewarding,” said Kelly.

This year the children at camp used a range of communication aids including PODD, Proloquo2Go on iPad, Dynavox V Max, Nova Chat and Vantage Lite.